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For Immediate Release
Contact: Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167

'The Story of Cap and Trade'

WASHINGTON

DAPHNE WYSHAM
Wysham is a fellow of the Institute for Policy Studies. She is a content adviser to the new short film "The Story of Cap and Trade."

Wysham recently wrote the piece "Cap and Trade Should Go the Way of the DoDo Before We Do," which states: "President Barack Obama's announcement that the U.S. will offer an unprecedented pledge to reduce overall greenhouse gas emissions by 17 percent by 2020 at the Copenhagen climate talks in December may seem impressive at first blush. But look closely, and you'll see the 'cuts' he has offered are, at least in the short-term, essentially meaningless. The reason is twofold. First: The cuts start from a 2005 baseline, when the baseline the scientific community has put forward is 1990. As a result, these cuts translate to a mere 4 percent below 1990 levels by 2020, when what we need is a 25-40 percent cut in U.S. emissions below 1990 levels by 2020.

"Reason number two: Even these measly cuts could all be met by the buying and selling of an invisible, unverifiable, entirely manmade commodity: the carbon offset. ...

"The bottom line is this: climate change is serious, and we can't afford to hand the fate of the planet over to the very polluters, banks, and traders that have gotten us into this mess. If we don't wake up soon to the flaws of cap and trade and work on real solutions now, all species -- our own included -- may go the way of the dodo."

See coverage of Copenhagen talks in the Climate Chronicle.

A nationwide consortium, the Institute for Public Accuracy (IPA) represents an unprecedented effort to bring other voices to the mass-media table often dominated by a few major think tanks. IPA works to broaden public discourse in mainstream media, while building communication with alternative media outlets and grassroots activists.